Goals: Earth science missions are designed to study our home world from above as a whole system and aid in our understanding how the planet is changing.

Accomplishments: Since the launch of Sputnik in 1957, more than a dozen nations have launched hundreds of spacecraft to study our home world from orbit. A half-century of progress in Earth observation from space has steadily changed our perception of Earth. Satellite measurements enabled understanding of the Earth as a system of interconnected parts. It is now clear the characteristics of Earth's atmosphere so critical to life are maintained by complex and tightly coupled circulation dynamics, chemistry and interactions with the oceans, ice and land surface; all of which are driven by solar radiation and gravitational forces.